Eye-on-Retail Daily Tipsheet Archives

WALMART CMO SPEAKS AT CHAMBER MEETING – Walmart U.S. focuses on 26 million ‘busy family’ households needing to save time and money by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “(Tony) Rogers, during his address Tuesday (July 12) to suppliers at the Bentonville-Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce WalStreet Breakfast, said Walmart sees busy families, predominantly larger than four members, as its biggest target customers. He said the retailer has divided shoppers into four categories: busy families, active savers, older unconnected and urban connected.”Read more

Sonos opening first retail store in N.Y.C., including ‘Wall of Sound’ by Teresa Novellino at New York Business Journal. “Each listening room is set up to look like a room in a house, such as a studio or a living room, featuring custom furniture, visual art and lighting designed to reflect the company’s favorite styles and periods from the past century. Included is the so-called “Wall of Sound,” a 17-by-24-foot installation made up of roughly 300 Sonos speakers, with eight of them plugged in and active.”See the 5 pics / Read more

NEWSWEEK: How Jeff Bezos is Hurtling Toward World Domination by Alexander Nazaryan. “Kara Swisher, the Recode co-founder many regard as Silicon Valley’s premier journalist, has watched Bezos from the start. “He’s kind of on this kick to be a better person,” she tells me. “He realizes his power—that he has power.” Though she is critical of some Amazon practices, she admires Bezos for his recent defense of free speech and journalism. “He’s enjoying the limelight a little bit more.”Read more

Toys ‘R’ Us CEO Says He Wants Toy Chain to Return to New York City by John Kell at Fortune. “(CEO David) Brandon hinted the main Toys ‘R’ Us brand could return to the island of Manhattan, though he admits it won’t look like it did in the past. He says locations will likely be smaller, perhaps between 8,000 to 12,000 square feet, an “urban model” that is similar to what Toys ‘R’ Us operates in China.”Read more

Publicis Groupe Creates New Entity for Walmart to Handle U.S. Creative, In-Store Marketing by Maureen Morrison at Ad Age. “The retailer has already been working with Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi on creative. It has also been working with Interpublic’s Martin Agency, for creative, and, according to people familiar with the matter, the agency is now officially losing the creative part to Publicis Groupe.”Read more

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Back-to-school goods seen lifting July imports at US ports by Jeff Daniels at CNBC. “According to information from Global Port Tracker released Tuesday, July’s forecast is for major U.S. ports to handle 1.64 million 20-foot equivalent units. That would represent a rise of just 1.4 percent from a year ago.”Read more

STAPLES NEW BOSS: “A couple of years ago, if someone told me we’d be selling Chef Boyardee in our stores, I wouldn’t have believed it” by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post.Read more

Amazon Says ‘Prime Day’ Sales Up 30 Percent for Merchants by Spencer Soper & Nicole Piper at Bloomberg. “ChannelAdvisor Corp., a North Carolina firm that helps 3,000 merchants sell on online marketplaces such as Amazon, said that as of 5 p.m. New York time, its customers were experiencing similar U.S. sales to the first Prime Day last July.”Read more

Retailers Lease Warehouse Space at Record Pace by Erica E. Phillips at WSJ. “Firms leased 70.1 million square feet of industrial space in the second quarter of 2016, the most in over 30 years of data and up 6% from the same quarter last year, real-estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield Inc. said in a report.”Read more (subscription)

Retail suppliers face growth-challenged environment by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Retailers and thousands of product suppliers…face one of the slowest growth climates in recent retail history, according to a report by Nielsen and the NPD Group. The report, recently presented to Wal-Mart suppliers at the retailer’s Open Call in Bentonville indicated that 45% of product categories are flat or declining, which represents about 40% of total retail revenue.”Read more

Online Sports Retailer Fanatics Turns to Fan Videos in First National Ad Push by Nathalie Tadena at WSJ. “In its first-ever national advertising campaign, online sports-apparel retailer Fanatics is leveraging user-generated content to capture the highs and lows that come with being a diehard sports fan…will debut with three 30-second spots on Wednesday during the ESPY Awards on ESPN.”Read more (subscription)